Navy 38, Army 3

The Navy Midshipmen beat the Army Black Knights today in the annual Army-Navy game.

I watched some of it from a barstool, going between a Smithwick's draft, my Elmore Leonard novel, and the game.

I'm not a college sports guy, but I appreciate this game every year.

The way it works with college athletes is this. Seniors play the final football game of their college careers, they wave to the fans, they shower up, do their press availability. They go back to their pads, have a few drinks, maybe get laid, and go to bed a bit drunk and a bit sore.

They wake up late Sunday morning, start studying for finals, and over the next couple of weeks, they take their final exams and head home for their winter break.

Some will practice for bowl games, which they'll play before riding out their final semester at school. Some will go home and trade stories with their high school friends. A lucky couple of hundred will consider offers from agents who want to represent their interests in negotiating with NFL teams.

Not the people who play the Army-Navy game.

Those seniors, they go home for winter break, they come back for their last semester, go off to training camp, and by the time the next academic year rolls around, they're in desert camouflage fighting in Iraq, or they're in giant parkas freezing their behinds off in the Afghan mountain winter.

Thanks, gentlemen.